The Greatest Show Unearthed
by arisu rin
Summary: Step Right Up! Behind this curtain lies a ghastly concoction of delight, horror, fantasy, and terror. Your every wish is our command, your every whimsical desire brought to life; but I'm warning you, there's always a price...Joker/OC.


**_Batman belong's to DC comics and WB Entertainment. I only own the plot, and the character names.  
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**The Greatest Show Unearthed**

**Chapter One: The Road to Hell**

They say nightmares come and go. They say it, but when you are a creator of something so dangerous and insane, the nightmare stays with you forever. You find yourself waking up every morning, only to remember those screams, tears, knives, laughter and the jokes.

Those bad jokes.

It is impossible to forget, especially when you are to blame. And keeping this secret hidden up inside, going through each day with a happy smile really does change a person. Smiles are no longer required to help me get through the day. All smiles do, is give me bad memories.

"Anna?"

My eyes look up into the eyes of my coworker, Wesley Reed. "What is it, Wes?" I question him, looking into his gray eyes that match my own perfectly. "We have to go to Gotham, business meeting. We are meeting with Wayne Enterprises, and we were chosen. I know you don't like going on trips, and I know how much you DESPISE Gotham, but the Boss was stubborn about you going."

"He of all people should know how much I HATE going there. What does he want me to do, anyways?"

"Negotiate. Don't try to hide it; you are really charismatic when you wanna be, Anna. You are our top negotiator, and you used to live in Gotham you know that place better than anyone."

"You've been to Gotham plenty of times, Wesley," I saw Wes stiffen, he knew I was pissed, "I'm pretty sure you can manage without me."

Wesley sighed, running his hand through his sandy blonde hair, his gray eyes seemed dull and tired all of a sudden. "If you called knowing the layout of the majority of hotels in Gotham, yeah. And I am not good with directions; remember when we went to New York?"

I stifled a chuckle; Wes was never good with directions, and always getting us lost and late to some meetings, and led to us getting in trouble. A lot of trouble. But my amusement was cut short when Wes questioned me, "Why do you hate Gotham anyways? I know it isn't the heavenliest place in the world, but still you grew up there. Home is where the heart is, Anna."

"Hell. Wes, that place is my personal hell." _A personal hell, that came in a form a psychotic clown that plagues my memories. _

"I used to be in the entertainment business Wes. Aiming to be a screenwriter, I wanted to write something magnificent, but in the end it turned out to be a nightmare."

"They didn't like it." Wes looked at me with sympathy, but I shook my head, "No they absolutely loved it."

"So what was the problem?" Wes asked puzzled.

"My main actor...got carried away..."

I refused to reply to anymore questions after that, and just stared out the window, looking down upon the bustling LA streets. LA wasn't the safest place, but to me it was a haven, no bats, no asylums, no gloomy weather, and best of all no clowns.

"Anna, come on the Boss wants to see us," Wesley snapped me out of my thoughts, and brought me back to reality. I got up and followed him towards our Boss's office.

Christopher Mason, a boss like no other. He was unpredictable as summer. With such a volatile personality, one would normally doubt his skills as our boss, but in reality he is brilliant. A viper waiting to strike Mason can be a good ally or a deadly enemy. Wayne has to be an idiot to reject his offer.

Mason is cunning, and will show no mercy if he wishes. Everyone working here is here for reason, for a talent. Whether it be negotiating to research to finances. Mason has got everything covered. People even go undercover for him, and work in businesses he deems to be a threat.

"You two are leaving this Friday, giving you two days to prepare whatever you got for Monday. Smile and be professional. Do not get lost Wesley Reed. Do not refuse this offer Anna Keller. I know how much you hate going to Gotham, but only this once. We need that offer, if we wanna secure our position there. I'm thinking of branching out, and let's face it. If we have Wayne, we get far in our career." Mason's eyes seem to be drifting into space again towards his greatest love money or his title.

Wes and I exchanged amuse looks, as we saw our boss drift into his own little world. "Mason, is there anything else?" I question, breaking him out of his daze. "What? Oh nothing else, both of you are dismissed."

Wes and I held a comfortable silence as we made our way back to our stations. My mind began to drift to memories, unmentionable memories, but Wes quickly snaps me out of my thoughts. "Well…that went well."

"It did, actually. Mason didn't go through one of his god awful mood swings." I said, chuckling a bit remembering those times that Mason was like a time bomb. One little thing to get that man ticking, and in a matter of seconds he would have exploded. He's like Jack in that way.

Jack…

No…that was the past, he doesn't exist anymore. The Joker does, Jack was a puppet, and the Joker is the puppeteer that controls it. Jack was the actor, but Joker was the character that simply took over. He's gone. All because of a stupid dream we both shared. He's gone, because of that stupid script. We planned it out; I'll gain recognition for my superb characters and plot structure. And Jack would gain fame as well, for acting out the character so well, he appeared real.

We'll make him exist.

And we did, but somehow our experiment went wrong, and Jack didn't come back. I got the Joker instead. He wasn't Jack, the only thing similar about them were those bad jokes. Those jokes that once made me laugh now made me cry.

"Anna?"

I look to see a concerned Wes staring at me, "I'm sorry what?"

"You're just like Mason sometimes, just drifting off in your minds to some far off world. Sometimes I wish I could see what you think of. Your eyes always seem so distance, as if you are locked in memories of a certain time."

"Yeah…I guess they do."

Wes realizing my obvious discomfort quickly dropped it and we continued to walk in the easy going silence, before parting our separate ways. After I walked into my office, I began rummaging through a stack of folders, looking for the one labeled Wayne.

In a couple of seconds I found the file and grinned. Wayne Enterprises was founded in the 17th century as a merchant house, but then expanded into something more. It has twelve branches- WayneTech, Wayne Biotech, Wayne Foods, Wayne Shipping, Wayne Steel, Wayne Aerospace, Wayne Yards, Wayne Chemicals, Wayne Industries, Wayne Medical, Wayne Electronics, and Wayne Entertainment.

WayneTech is the biggest division there, working on developing and researching alien technology, it has some subdivisions, and Bruce Wayne seemed to be very serious about this division. LexCorp was their main rival, but Wayne brought them out. I hate to say it, but I am impressed, if I still stayed in Gotham, I probably would have worked there.

But if I continued to live in Gotham, I would be living my dream. My thoughts have taken a dark turn, as memories came rushing back to my mind. I shook my head violently trying to forget, but stopped immediately as a throaty chuckle came from the door.

"Are you pretending to be a rock star, Anna?" There in the doorway, stood Mason towering over me chuckling as he made his way over to me. "No…just trying to get rid of bad memories," I admitted, a blush forming on my cheeks in humiliation.

"Is it about, Gotham?"

"I guess I am kind of nervous, going back to my hometown, where I was born and raised." I confessed. Mason looked at me puzzled, "Normally people are ecstatic about going back home, but you look at it as if it was the worst thing that could ever happen to you."

"I guess some of my best and worst memories happened there, memories I rather erase from my mind completely." I spoke softly, my eyes averted to the floor as I continued my confession.

"I see…you sure you can go, I don't want you to be emotionally drained or anything." Mason questioned, my expression turned from incredulous to expressionless in an instant. He probably doesn't care about me, just doesn't want me to screw up our plans for getting Wayne into our little circle.

Mason sensing what I was thinking clarified his words, "I really do care about you Anna." He said it gently stroked my hair comfortingly. His fingers played with my black locks, as I stared outside knowing that the storm was brewing. And when it comes, everything will burn.

"Don't worry about me, Mason," I said giving him a strained smile as I continued, "I'll be fine, and I'll succeed in what I'm going to do. I won't fail."

"I know you won't. You always come out on top, no matter what."

I smiled at his words as I watched him walk out the door, his face masked into an impassive mask.

Just a moment later, Wes walked in my office with curiousity written all over his face. "So, what did Mason want with you?"

"He told me, I could drop out on his offer to Gotham if I wanted to. I refused, I couldn't let you screw this up," I teased, my eyes dancing with mirth as Wes's expression turned to one of annoyance, "That is exactly what Mason told me. 'Don't screw this up, Reed,'" Mason tried to imitate Mason's husky voice, causing me to giggle from amusement.

"Well, you did us miss a meeting that one time. Remember how pissed off Mason was, it scared the hell out of me," I laughed reminiscing in our memories. "Psh, as if I would even screw up. This is Wayne Enterprise we are talking about, not some stupid company."

"You know, you sound like a teenage girl, when you talk like that." Wes just looked at me disgusted, "That was one thing I could have lived not knowing."

"If you didn't know you would probably embarrass yourself at whatever situation you're at. So in that case you should be thanking me," I retorted, victory flashing in my eyes as I looked at Wes's deflated expression, "Your right, like always."

We continued to work, planning our strategy and choosing replaying different scenarios of all the possible outcomes until it was time to leave.

"Bye Wes."

"Bye Anna."

After exchanging our goodbyes and going our separate ways, I made my way towards the car and frowned. The road to hell was always made from the righteous, whose well intentions led them straight into the hell fire.

The hell fire known as Gotham…

Every moment I am haunted from memories of me, him, we, us… Our laughter entwined together in a bittersweet symphony, our fates knotted together, bound together for eternity. Jack and I were one. It was my fault he was gone, from one little story we came up together got him to turn into that…

Monster.

It started out simple enough, plotting and planning, and then we created the perfect villain Chaos. A monster, a freak with a questionable past, Chaos was the framework for the monster that he turned into. Jack, turned my name into a joke as well. He called me Anna Archie, it sounded like anarchy and he liked it.

It was his nickname for me, so in return I called him the Joker, a perfect name for someone as funny as him. He had a sense of humor and a damn good one, dark humor drew us both in and we found ourselves laughing as we watched and read those dark tales of the North.

But those days are gone, leaving Jack with a permanent smile and a new life.

And now he is making his show, filling the people with unforgettable terror and fear.

A show called…

The Greatest Show Unearthed.

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_How is it? An idea that popped up in my head randomly, and I just had to get it out. Tell me what you think in a review, otherwise I might think you HATE it, and not really do much with this story. Title is called-The Greatest Show Unearthed is the name of a song by a band called Creature Feature. It always make me think of the Joker. Anyways, I am using all their songs, for the entire story so credit is due to them. _

_Once again please review and tell me what you think about the chapter or the song or both. _

_**So Review. **_

_**And thank you.  
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